Miró grew up in the Barri Gòtic neighborhood of Barcelona. His father was Miquel Miró Adzerias and his mother was Dolors Ferrà. Joan Miró was born on Apin Barcelona, Spain, Spain to the family of a goldsmith and a watchmaker. The Miró name indicates Jewish (marrano or converso) roots. Joan Miró used a variety of media to create works exploding with color, amorphous shapes, and dreamlike scenes that seemed both childlike and sophisticated. Joan Miró was a Spanish influential 20th century painter, sculptor and ceramist who created his own style interfusing Surrealism, Expressionism, Color Field Painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Miró, who suffered from heart disease, died in his home in Palma, Majorca, on December 25, 1983, at the age of 90. His paintings were exhibited in different museums and galleries all over the world.
In the last years of his life Miró wrote his most radical and least known ideas, exploring the possibilities of gas sculpture and four-dimensional painting. He also made temporary window paintings (on glass) for an exhibit. In 1975 Miró demonstrated his devotion to his native country with the donation of the Miró Foundation to the city of Barcelona. He also created tapestries, one of which was made for The World Trade Center in New York in 1974 together with the Catalan artist Josep Royo.
Miró worked on not only lithographic editions, but created a series of sculptures and ceramics for the garden of the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, which was completed in 1964. He developed a close relationship with Fernand Mourlot and that resulted in the production of over one thousand different lithographic editions.
Starting from the year of 1948 Joan Miró introduces his style into different techniques. In 1948-1949 Miró lived in Barcelona and made frequent visits to Paris to work on printing techniques at the Mourlot Studios and the Atelier Lacourière. The following year Miró painted a number of large compositions. In 1944 he produced his first ceramics with Artigas's assistance and also executed a series of paintings on irregular pieces of canvas. The exhibitions were a great success.ĭuring the Spanish Civil War and World War II he created such works as "Head of a Catalan Peasant", "The Reaper", and the series "Constellations" which carried political messages. In 1931 Pierre Matisse represented Joan Miró and introduced his work to the United States market by frequently exhibiting Miró's work in New York. In 1928-1929 he made his first collages and papiers collés (pasted papers). In 1928 Miró visited the Netherlands inspired by the Dutch masters, he executed the series of "Dutch Interiors". Starting from 1926 Miró worked on developing his own style and art language, which was more abstract and more symbolic. Surrealism was a source of inspiration to him, and he made use of its methods however, he never accepted any surrealist "doctrine". Miró was connected with the surrealists from 1924 to 1930.
It was the beginning of the surrealist period in his works ("The Tilled Field", "Catalan Landscape" ("The Hunter"), "Pastoral", etc). In 1920 he made his first trip to Paris where he met Pablo Picasso after which his paintings gained cubist character until the year of 1924 when Joan Miró joined the Surrealist group. At this time Miró developed a very precise style, picking out every element in isolation and detail and arranging them in deliberate composition, this style was later characterized as Magical Realism ("House with Palm tree", "Nude with a Mirror", and "The Table - Still Life with Rabbit"). His first solo exhibition took place in 1918 in Barcelona but it wasn’t successful. He was inspired by the works of Cezanne and Van Gogh. His early art was influenced by Fauvism and Cubism, which he got acquainted with in art galleries of Barcelona ("Portrait of Vincent Nubiola", "Siurana - the Path", "Nord-Sud" and "Painting of Toledo"). His parents were against Joan’s desire to become an artist that’s why he had to leave the School of Fine Arts and work as a clerk for two years, however after suffering a nervous breakdown he went back to art with the approval of his parents. Miró’s career did not start in the sphere of art.